Faculty celebrates International Women’s Day
Lifetime Achievement Award
In celebration of International Women’s Day, the Faculty of Forestry hosted a lunch-time dialogue on “Gender and Forestry”. The keynote speaker at the event was Dr Maureen Reed (School of Environment and Sustainability, University of Saskatchewan). Dr Cindy Prescott (UBC Forestry) spoke on gender and the Faculty, Ms Andrea Lyall (UBC Forestry) spoke on being a forestry professional from the perspective of a First Nations woman and Forestry doctoral candidate Ms Monika Singh spoke on forest management gender issues in forest-dependent communities. This is the first time that UBC Forestry has organized a special event in celebration of International Women’s Day and 75 people from UBC campus and beyond participated.
They had three minutes...
Photo: Jens Locher
The Three Minute Thesis (3MT) challenges graduate students to present their research in 3 minutes or less to a non-specialist audience. The competition began in Australia as a fun event for graduate students. Last year, UBC graduate students participated for the first time with a campus wide event. This year, we are proud to say that Natalie Sopinka, a doctoral student in the Department of Forest Sciences, took top place in UBC’s competition. In the final heats, 8 students from across campus delivered presentations, but it was Natalie’s highly informative and engaging performance that won the day. Videos of the final presentations can be viewed at http://3mt.grad.ubc.ca/about/2012-finalists/. Natalie, a graduate student with Dr Scott Hinch, is researching the transgenerational effects of stress in sockeye salmon. Well done Natalie!
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Dr Ian de la Roche, an adjunct professor in the Department of Forest Resources Management, has been awarded the Dr Don Rix Award for Lifetime Achievement by Life Sciences BC. The award recognizes Ian’s work to usher Canada’s traditional agriculture and forestry resources into the new bioeconomy and his tremendous contribution to Canada’s innovation agenda. Ian has had a long and varied career, starting as a senior research scientist at Agriculture Canada’s Ottawa Research Station before moving into a series of leadership positions at Agriculture Canada. In 1988, he was appointed as Assistant Deputy Minister at Western Economic Diversification Canada, and in 1992 he became President and CEO of Forintek Canada Corporation. In that position, he oversaw the creation of FPInnovations, a merger of 3 national forestry R&D institutes and the Canadian Wood Fibre Centre. He joined the Faculty of Forestry in 2009.
Faculty Strategic Plan finalized
After almost a year of reviews and consultation, the Faculty of Forestry has completed the latest iteration of its Strategic Plan. Many individuals contributed to it, and it also takes into account the comments received when the 3 Departments went through external reviews in April – May 2011. The end product represents a distillation of the many comments that we received, and while it was not possible to incorporate every suggestion, we now have a clear direction for the future. The challenge now is to see the many different recommendations implemented. The Plan is available on the Faculty’s website at www.forestry.ubc.ca/strategic-plan .